Gannett

Gannett Co., Inc. is the largest newspaper publisher in the United States.

The company publishes 85 daily newspapers in the U.S., including USA Today, and nearly 1,000 non-daily publications. The company’s U.S. daily newspapers have a combined daily paid circulation of approximately 7.2 million. Gannett also operates 23 television stations with a market reach of more than 20.1 million households.

Through its subsidiary, Newsquest, Gannett is the second largest regional newspaper publisher in the United Kingdom with a portfolio of more than 300 titles.

Gannett also has investments in several Internet-related ventures, including CareerBuilder (employment advertising); Classified Ventures (auto and real estate ads); Topix.net (news content aggregator); Shermans Travel (online travel service); Shop Local (online marketing solutions); and 4INFO (mobile phone search services).

Top competitors are McClatchy Company, News Corporation, and Tribune Company.

Advertainment
In Denver, Sacramento, Atlanta and Cleveland, radio stations owned by the Gannett media conglomerate have adopted "advertainment" - a new programming format that consists of "hybrid shows, which mix entertainment with commercial content (in addition to regular commercial breaks)." In Minneapolis, Gannett affiliate KARE plans this spring to "revamp its chatty mid-morning talk show 'Today,' and put much of that happy talk up for sale," writes Deborah Caulfield Rybak. "Advertisers will pay $2,000 to $2,500 for 5-minute segments on the show. ... 'I am aghast,' said University of Minnesota media ethics professor Jane Kirtley, who at first thought a reporter was kidding about the new format. 'This is the logical extension of the whole pernicious practice of infomercials. If viewers are accustomed to getting [talk show] programming in a very different way, to suddenly change the rules on them isn't fair.'"

Personnel
Executives and 2007 pay:
 * Craig A. Dubow, Chairman, President and CEO, $7,546,710
 * Paul Davidson, Chairman & chief executive officer, Newsquest plc, $2,367,222
 * Robert J. Dickey, President, U.S. Community Publishing
 * Roxanne V. Horning, Senior vice president, Gannett Human Resources
 * Dave Lougee, President, Gannett Broadcasting
 * Gracia C. Martore, Executive vice president and chief financial officer, $3,026,985
 * Craig A. Moon, President and publisher, USA TODAY, $1,607,001
 * Chris Saridakis, Senior vice president and chief digital officer
 * Wendell J. Van Lare, Senior vice president, Gannett Labor Relations
 * John A. Williams, President, Gannett Digital Ventures
 * Kurt Wimmer, Senior vice president, general counsel

Board of Directors
 * Craig A. Dubow, Chairman, President and CEO
 * Arthur H. Harper, Other directorships: Monsanto Company
 * John Jeffry Louis, Chairman and co-founder, Parson Capital Corporation
 * Marjorie Magner, Other directorships: Accenture; and The Charles Schwab Corporation
 * Duncan M. McFarland, Other directorships: NYSE Euronext, Inc.; The Asia Pacific Fund, Inc.,; and trustee, Financial Accounting Foundation
 * Donna E. Shalala, President, University of Miami. Other directorships: Lennar Corporation
 * Neal Shapiro, Other directorships and trusteeships: American Public Television; Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE); and Communications and Media Studies program, Tufts University
 * Karen Hastie Williams, Other directorships: The Chubb Corporation; Continental Airlines, Inc.; SunTrust Banks, Inc.; and WGL Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Washington Gas Light Company

Contact details
7950 Jones Branch Drive McLean, VA 22107 Phone: (703) 854-6000 Fax: (703) 854-2053 Web: http://www.gannett.com

Related SourceWatch articles

 * John Purcell
 * Journalism
 * Kurt A. Wimmer
 * media
 * Media reform
 * media trends
 * Product placement

External articles

 * Deborah Caulfield Rybak, "KARE plans to change show from talk to 'advertainment': The Minneapolis station joins others around the country in selling advertisers guest spots to pitch their products directly to viewers", Minneapolis Star Tribune, November 23, 2005.
 * Matthew Barakat, "Gannett to Write Down Its Assets by More Than $2 Billion", Washington Post, June 10, 2008.